CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield man will spend up to 25 years in state prison for assaulting his six-month-old child.
Andre Maurice Sheffey, 33, and the child’s mother, Savannah Marie Grove, 34, were both charged after the boy was treated for what was reported as a fall from a couch in October.
The child was reportedly having seizures, was blue and his limbs were limp. His condition required he be transported by helicopter to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment.
It was discovered he was suffering from shaken baby syndrome, leaving him with blood on the brain and his legs had “three separate fractures in different stages of healing,” which indicated ongoing physical abuse, according to the affidavit.
Grove was at work at the time Sheffey said the baby fell. She told investigators that he was fine the night before except that she was having trouble getting him to sleep and he had vomited on her.
After questioning several witnesses, police learned that Sheffey had anger issues and had struck the baby so hard previously that he left a hand print on the child.
This was confirmed after Grove’s cell phone was seized and a photo of that injury was discovered along with other deleted pictures of injuries.
One family member told investigators that Sheffey and Grove often fought and this is when Grove would send her photos of the baby showing what Sheffey had done.
His bouts of anger also reportedly involved him punching holes in the walls of their apartment and damaging their front door.
At one point in the investigation, Grove allegedly asked this family member to talk to a child to get her to stop telling people that Sheffey hits the baby.
A cell phone conversation was submitted as evidence during which Grove stated Sheffey can’t continue to lose patience with the child and “bruise the baby like he did today.”
Other conversations detailed additional abuse with photos showing bruises on the child’s face, shoulder and thigh.
An interview with another child from their household exposed an instance when the baby was bleeding from the mouth because of an injury to his lip and gums.
This witness speculated that Sheffey, who was the only one caring for the baby at that time, had “shoved the bottle in his mouth.”
She also stated that she had seen Sheffey pull on the child’s legs when he was changing him, according to the criminal complaint.
When a different child from the household was questioned about how Sheffey treated the baby, she put her hands around a doll’s neck as if strangling it and threw it to the ground, police said.
Sheffey, who was scheduled to go to trial this week, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child, and was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to serve a total of eight to 25 years in state prison, according to online court documents.
He was originally charged with 20 various counts of assault, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child, obstruction and tampering with evidence.
Grove is charged with five felony counts of endangering the welfare of children and one felony count of intimidating a witness, 10 misdemeanor counts of tampering with/fabricating physical evidence, two counts of obstruction, one count of intimidates or intends to intimate a person to give false or misleading information and four counts of recklessly endangering another person. Her case is still pending.